The Unlikely Journey Behind Red Door Fencing

Kevin Powell’s path to owning a fencing club with his wife, Sarah was so unlikely, he almost didn’t even take up the sport. 

Having grown up in a small town in Oklahoma, the closest fencing club to Kevin was an hour away. In college, Kevin signed up for a fencing class and a few weeks before it started, the class was cancelled. “It just felt like a bunch of near misses,” Kevin explained.  

When Kevin moved to Greater Des Moines (DSM) from Seattle for a job at Principal, he reconnected with an old friend who brought up a community-run fencing club in town and thought it would be a great way to meet people and get some exercise. “So, I signed up,” he said. “He went once and never came back, but I paid my money, so I wasn’t going to quit.”  

Four months later, Kevin was still competing and assisting with children’s classes. Six months after that, he was leading one himself. “That’s when I decided I wanted to be the best coach I could be,” he said. “I was able to get into a program at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs for coaching and returned more than once.”

After an injury forced Kevin to stop competing, he realized he had a profound passion for teaching. “The first time I ever really cared about doing well in fencing was when I was coaching,” Kevin shared. So, Kevin poured his free time into coaching. It was during this time that he and Sarah got to know each other. 

Unlike Kevin, Sarah got her start in fencing in high school, where she even launched a program of her own. When she began at Iowa State University, she joined the fencing club, where her path crossed with Kevin. Over time, the two realized they shared a similar vision for coaching and building the fencing community.  

Not long after, Kevin and Sarah decided they wanted to create a space that was different from other clubs in the region; they wanted something that was their own and where the kids could compete. “We started in the basement of a church,” they said, “and we decided to give ourselves a year. If our fencers improved, we’d look into our own place.” A year later, all their fencers had improved significantly—even Sarah’s dad who was taken on as a guinea pig.

In the summer of 2013, Kevin and Sarah signed a lease to use their current space, 220 E. 3rd Street in Downtown DSM and their grand opening took place in January the following year. “Our goal with Red Door Fencing is to make an uncommon and often expensive sport accessible for more people,” the couple said. 

What started as a dream that seemed impossible became something more meaningful: an opportunity for others to discover a sport they might have otherwise not tried.  

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